Columbia University School of Social Work
 
T6960 School-Based and School-Linked Services: Issues, Programs, and Policies

Overview and Rationale

This field of practice is organized around the population of school-aged children, with a range of problems, who can be served either directly or indirectly through the school setting. The evolution of the field has been largely shaped by the prevailing belief that all children can succeed in school. School-based and school-linked services are typically designed to prevent or resolve the range of academic and nonacademic obstacles that interfere with school performance. An array of agency and organizational settings are involved in the delivery of school-based and school-linked social work services.

The social work services germane to this field of practice include clinical intervention with individual students, groups of students, and families; consultation and collaboration with educators; case management; design, implementation, and evaluation of relevant programs, such as parent involvement and drug prevention programs; facilitating school-community partnerships; and advocacy and lobbying to influence educational and family policies at the local, state, and federal levels. Traditionally, these services were provided almost exclusively by school social workers. The employment of social workers by public schools dates back to 1906. More recently, the demand for service integration and inter professional collaboration has led to the design and evaluation of school-linked services. In the school-linked service approach, schools and human service systems work collaboratively to administer, finance, and deliver child and family services that are either school-based or located nearby the school. Consequently, school-linked social work services are provided in a range of diverse service settings, including hospitals, family service agencies, and within child welfare and mental health service systems.

This course is designed to provide a foundation for understanding practice in and with schools (K-12) and to prepare social workers for leadership in the educational arena. The overall goal is to provide knowledge about the issues, policies, legislation, and service delivery programs relevant to the educational system and potential roles for social workers. The course aims to prepare social workers to understand the key philosophical, policy and political issues related to current education debates and to strengthen the students' capacity to participate in practice, programming, and policy initiatives.

Learning Outcomes

In this course, students will learn to . . .

  1. Describe schools as a complex social system within the urban community and broader society, including as a host setting for the practice of social work.
  2. Analyze theoretical and empirical frameworks that explain the causes and consequences of school experiences, and the implications of such for child and family policy and service delivery.
  3. Identify legal and policy issues that shape educational systems, and describe their impact on delivery of social work services.
  4. Identify current "best practices," both in education and social work, for working with students and their families.
  5. Analytically differentiate between the delivery of traditional school social work services, school-linked social work services, and social work services delivered within the context of full-service schools.
  6. Describe the emerging school-linked services paradigm, including: (1) philosophy; (2) efficacy of existing model programs; (3) implications for educational and social welfare policy.

Council on Social Work Education Core Competencies

This course contributes toward mastery of the following core areas of social work competency identified by the Council on Social Work Education.

Social workers . . .

  • Identify as professional social workers and conduct themselves accordingly.
  • Apply critical thinking to inform and communicate professional judgments.
  • Engage diversity and difference in practice.
  • Advance human rights and social and economic justice.
  • Engage in research-informed practice and practice-informed research.
  • Apply knowledge of human behavior and the social environment.
  • Engage in policy practice to advance social and economic well-being, and to deliver effective social work services.
  • Respond to contexts that shape practice.
  • Assess individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
  • Intervene with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.

Core Content Themes

  • The development of student understanding of policies that shape the service delivery in schools and the way these have changed over time.
  • Increasing the knowledge base of models of school based and school linked services.
  • Examination of legal and policy issues shaping social services in the educational system, including the various funding streams and laws that govern education and specially targeted populations in schools.
  • Analysis of legislation, policies, programs and service dilemmas and effective methods of participation in the current debates on school reform.
  • Understanding of potential roles for social workers in education, education policy and programs and the relationship with educational professionals.
  • Viewing the school as a microcosm of society.